Empanadas Salteñas – Argentine Beef and Potato Turnovers
The authentic recipe from northern Argentina: beef cut by hand with a knife, beef suet, potato, hard-boiled egg and scallions (spring onions) — as juicy as they are supposed to be.
The filling goes into the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, overnight if you can. This is not about convenience: the suet has to be solid when the empanada goes into the oven. It melts in the heat and that is the juice. Filled warm, it leaks out through the seal and you get a dry empanada.
And the beef is cut with a knife, never ground — 5 mm cubes. The texture is the whole point of a salteña.
The other salteña in the catalogue adds red pepper to the filling and folds 16 to 19 pleats. And the historic rivals are the empanadas tucumanas.
🔎 What is beef suet? — where it comes from, what goes in it and how it differs.
Ingredients
- 1 kg beef (topside or eye of round), hand-cut into 5 mm cubes
- 500 g white onion, finely chopped
- 250 g beef suet — essential for the flavor
- 3 medium potatoes, cooked al dente and cut into small cubes
- 1 bunch scallions (spring onions), green part only, chopped
- 3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
- 1 tbsp sweet paprika, preferably from Cachi
- 1 tsp cumin, used sparingly
- 1 tsp chili flakes
- Salt, to taste
- Beef stock (optional, a splash)
- Empanada dough disks, homemade with suet if possible
Method
- 1
In a pot, melt the beef suet over medium heat. Add the white onion and cook until translucent, not browned.
- 2
Add the hand-cut beef. Stir well and add the seasonings (paprika, cumin, chili flakes and salt). If it looks dry, add a splash of stock.
- 3
When the meat changes color — it does not need long cooking — turn off the heat and add the cubes of cooked potato. Fold gently.
- 4
Transfer the filling to a flat tray and let it cool to room temperature. Then refrigerate for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. The suet must be solid or the empanada will not be juicy in the oven.
- 5
Just before assembling, scatter the chopped scallions and hard-boiled egg over the top. Do not overmix, or the potato breaks up.
- 6
Fill the disks with a generous spoonful. Close them and make the traditional pleated edge — between 13 and 15 folds, by Salta tradition.
- 7
Bake in a clay oven or a conventional one at maximum temperature (250 °C) for 10-12 minutes, until the dough is golden and blistering.
Flavors of Salta
The soul of Argentina's northwest in your kitchen. A run through the Andean inheritance of corn, slow fire and deep flavors that take you there with every bite.
